Trying to beat back the label as New York City-focused, Senate Democrats announced today an Upstate Caucus, “a five-member body that will concentrate on ways to help families live, work and thrive in upstate regions of New York state.”

Senate Democrats are trying to win the Senate majority for the first time since 1965, and will likely need to pick off an upstate seat or two to knock off the GOP majority. Republicans hold a two-seat majority.

Other groups, including the Coalition To Save Marriage In New York, are expected to join the lawsuit against Paterson, who this week revealed a directive he issued in mid-May to state agencies telling them to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states and nations.

Advocates say Paterson is well within his legal rights to make the move, and the state started offering health benefits last year to gay couples in state and local governments.

“What the governor did is in no way radical or stepping out ahead of the state,” said Susan Sommer, a lawyer with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. “What the governor is doing is simply following what is now very well established law.”

Paterson has used the same argument, saying that the state would be liable if he didn’t recognize same-sex marriage when it comes to state workers and state policies.

“What I’m trying to do is to accommodate the fact that if I didn’t take action, I would leave these state open to lawsuits. I would open the state treasury open to monetary damages,” Paterson said yesterday. “And I would be discriminating against individuals who come here from other jurisdictions.”

The governor’s communications director Risa Heller has not returned calls seeking comment on the pending lawsuit.

“These elections will have historic repercussions both in the United States and the world. Senator Clinton has always been consistent in her commitment with the needs of the Latino community.

“Whether fighting for better education, universal health care and social well-being, as First Lady and Senator from New York — representing millions of Latinos –she has always fought for what is most important for our families,” said the 5-time Grammy award winning artist.

Gov. David Paterson just finished talking to reporters in Manhattan and said his directive to state agencies to allow for same-sex marriage rights in New York is legal and upholds the state’s tradition of honoring marriages from other states.

“We as a state would be liable if we didn’t take this action,” Paterson said.

Paterson said he thinks gay marriage is “beautiful. I think it’s fine” but he said his decision is based on law, not his personal opinion.

He cited a Feb. 1 ruling by an appellate court in a case involving a Monroe County couple, one of whom sued Monroe Community College after the school refused to provide health insurance for her partner, whom she married in Canada where same-sex marriages are legal.

He said that case affirms the state’s responsibility to accept marriage licenses from same-sex couples who get married in other states and countries. Only Massachusetts, and soon California, have same-sex marriage laws.

If he didn’t allow for same-sex married couples to receive the same benefits as heterosexual couples, Paterson said “I would leave these state open to lawsuits. I would open the state to monetary damages. And I would be discriminating against individuals who come here from other jurisdictions.”

Some state legislators fired back at Paterson for the directive to state agencies, suggesting it’s an end around the Legislature, which has yet to adopt a same-sex marriage law. The Assembly passed the measure last year, but has not been taken up in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Paterson responded that the Legislature has every right to pass a same-sex marriage bill, just like he has the right to follow the law and allow for equal benefits to gay couples.

In one of his toughest cracks at the Legislature, he ended his press conference with if the Legislature isn’t happy, “maybe they should go in and work on something.”

Sources in Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office said that the Metropolitian Transportation Authority has agreed to no longer let authority members use E-Z Pass tags unless the use is specific for authority business.

This week, Cuomo dropped the hammer on the MTA and the Thruway Authority after it was revealed that authority members were getting free E-Z Pass tags.

The Thruway Authority relented yesterday and said its seven current and former members will no longer use the tags. But MTA vowed yesterday to challenge Cuomo in court.

Yet apparently the MTA has thought otherwise, and Cuomo has planned a 2:30 p.m. presser in New York City to announce the new developments.

Updated 2: Here’s some of Cuomo’s statement:

“The MTA is right to change course and alter its policies relating to current and former board members getting free E-ZPasses for life. No longer will board members get a free ride while everyday New Yorkers pay their own way. The MTA, like all government agencies, must follow the law like everyone else. “

Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno refused to say today whether he plans to run for re-election this year. Bruno, 79, the state’s most powerful Republican, has represented a Senate district in the Capital Region for 32 years. “Time is everything in this business,” he hold reporters, declining to talk about his plans further. Bruno has been the majority leader since 1995. Republicans, who have controlled the Senate every year but one since 1938, are now clinging to a narrow 32-30 edge over Democrats. Bruno’s retirement would be a blow to their attempts to fend off the Democratic challenge in November.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a settlement this morning with Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions Inc. in response to accusations that its “BODIES” exhibits use corpses of Chinese prisoners. Based on the agreement, Premier now has to obtain documentation that bodies have been obtained legitimately and with consent of the people who died.

Sen. James Alesi, R-Perinton, Monroe County, is sponsoring legislation that would require anyone who wanted to display cadavers for money to show proof they had consent from the people who died or their relatives.

The issue of the origins of bodies exhibited in the United States gained recognition in February, when the ABC show 20/20 reported there was an alleged black market for bodies in China, and they included executed political prisoners. Corpses have been sent to the United States for use in exhibitions.

“The grim reality is that Premier Exhibitions has profited from displaying the remains of individuals who may have been tortured and executed in China,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Despite repeated denials, we now know that Premier itself cannot demonstrate the circumstances that led to the death of the individuals. Nor is Premier able to establish that these people consented to their remains being used in this manner.”

The company is not the one that mounted an exhibit last year at Rochester Museum & Science Center. That was the Universe Within Touring Co. of Baltimore.

With all the talk in state politics today about Gov. David Paterson’s directive to state agencies to provide benefits to same-sex couples, it seems that Paterson has quietly talked about the initiative publicly a few weeks ago.

On May 17, Paterson recorded a video played at the Empire State Pride Agenda in Rochester, where he announced he would allow same-sex couples who receive marriage licenses out of state to receive equal benefits.

“I’m directing our agency heads that we will recognize marriages conducted outside our state right here in New York state,” he said. “This is will be a strong step toward marriage equality right here in this state.”

The state Conservative Party is already railing against the move.

“Marriage in New York State is between a man and a woman,” said party Chairman Mike Long. “The California Judges overturned the will of the California people and Governor Paterson is apparently trying to do the same thing in New York.”

The revamped “I Love New York” campaign is calling on filmmakers to produce 60-second films about why they love the state in an effort to highlight attractions and lure visitors to the Empire State.

The inaugural “I Love New York” Short Film Competition is to be announced todayy at the George Eastman House in Rochester, where the Eastman Kodak Co. founder invented motion picture film.

Submissions will be accepted between June 1 and July 15 and must be filmed in New York. The entries will be judged by a star-packed panel, including “30 Rock” star Tina Fey and Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, a Fairport, Monroe County, native.

“We really want this to be an opportunity for New Yorkers to tell their own story as part of the re-launch of the campaign as to what’s their reason for loving New York,” said Thomas Ranese, chief marketing officer for the state Empire State Development Corp.

Submissions will then be reviewed and posted on the “I Love New York” Web site; the winners will be announced in September.

The grand prize winner’s film will appear as a commercial during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcast and on JetBlue Airways seatback televisions. The film will also appear on Independent Film Channel, which is one of the contest’s sponsors.

The contest will also offer a variety of other awards, such as best young filmmaker, best student filmmaker and best regional film. The contest will include an online sweepstakes where visitors can vote for their favorite film.

State legislators and mental health workers applauded the creation of a new statewide autism agenda today.

A new multi-agency “autism consortium” will be formed and hopes to create a statewide registry of people with autism and increase research and training for teachers and other professionals who interact with people with autism, said state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Commissioner Diana Jones Ritter.

The consortium will “provide the infrastructure, resources and collaboration necessary to best advance basic and applied research in this critical area,” she said.

The new platform adopted by the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities includes provisions for increasing autism research and increased cooperation between the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, the state health department and state education, she said.

The state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental currently supports more than 16,000 people with autism or autism-spectrum disorders in the state.

James Lawrence has, for the past 14 years as Editorial Page editor, been responsible for producing more than 5,100 daily Editorial and Speaking Out pages. He started his journalism career in Cleveland shortly after graduating from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Along the way, he has had career stops in Denver, Orlando, Fla., and White Plains. But unquestionably, he says, some of his most rewarding years as a journalist have been here in Rochester, being a part of positive change. That change has included reforms that followed an aggressive “Challenging Albany” campaign, greater public awareness and pushback against the coarsening of our culture, and strides being made to make this region a destination community.

Jane Sutter became deputy editorial page editor in June 2009. She also has served as managing editor and general manager/custom content at the Democrat and Chronicle. She writes editorials on many topics, with a focus on health and education, helps plan and edit copy on the Editorial and Speaking Out pages, oversees the Board of Contributors and assists Editorial Page editor James Lawrence in managing the department. She has worked as a reporter or editor for newspapers in Iowa, Illinois, Florida, South Carolina and Elmira, where she was executive editor of the Star-Gazette. She recently received her master’s degree in media management from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them.

Brian Tumulty has worked in the Gannett Washington Bureau since 1992, first as a national business writer and then as a regional reporter for newspapers in New York, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. A native of the New York City borough of Queens, he attended high school on Long Island and college in the Bronx. He has four children and one granddaughter.